Widget is six. He’s had a loose tooth for a while now, and this week, just before the Christmas pagent, he wiggled it all the way out. (It may or may not have had anything to do with the stories I told about wanting to sing “All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth,” when *I* was six and getting ready for *my* holiday pagent at school. Ahem.)
Being the kind of mom that I am, I had a design, fabric, and ideas to sew him his very own tooth pillow – a pillow with a pocket where you put your used teeth so that that fine lady that is the Tooth Fairy can find it easily and see the handy (large) pocket that looks just right for a couple of quarters.
However, also being the kind of mom that I am, the project … wasn’t done yet. So as the days got closer and closer and the tooth got wigglier and wigglier, I tried to finish what I was working on and start on this project. I didn’t make it.
The day of the pagent, we drove to school bundled in winter coats, singing songs about Rudolph — as I sewed frantically patiently on this long-awaited tooth pillow. We’d be gone for a couple hours, with bedtime swiftly following, but I was NOT going to let my little boy down. He would have his tooth pillow before he put his head on his own pillow to sleep.
And, thanks to a longer-than-anticipated wait to get into the building and some quick stitching in the front seat of the car, I finished it just before the pagent. Widget sang loud and strong (I heard him! from the fourth row!). The kindergartners were angelic, the older kids were smart and dramatic, and the oldest kids sang like angels again, or at least angels who were a little nervous in front of all those parents and all. Little Bear, Grammy and Grampa, and Daddy and I sat fourth row, aisle, next to a brand-new baby and her mama. The baby was only two weeks old and captured Little Bear’s interest whether she cried, cooed, or just snuggled in.
By 8:00, we all were tired and ready for bed. The children changed into their footie pj’s, zipped themselves up, and Widget deposited his tooth into the designated pocket and went to sleep. All went perfectly.
Until the next morning, when he burst into our room in tears, saying, “I want my tooth BACK!”
Apparently, the budding young naturalist would rather have teeth than quarters. No matter how many there are.
And so, tonight we wrote a note (it looks brusque, but he did sign it with a heart), folded it carefully, and put *that* in the little pocket in the tooth pillow, now all sewn and stuffed … and outgrown already. As Widget pointed out on his way to bed: “I won’t be needing that anymore.”
Oh, little boy. Don’t grow up so fast. Let’s believe in the magic of childhood … just a little bit longer.
Toddler Planet is written by 
Toddler Planet 
Gotta love that young scientist! But don’t be so fast to put away that pillow. I’m guessing that once the novelty of examining a lost tooth or two wears off, he very well may prefer the money.
The Tooth Fairy brought “gold” dollar coins at our house, which were a novelty in themselves.
What a young scientist! He can still use the pillow for money deposits and notes to the TF that he is presenting his tooth for proof of loss but that he’d like to keep it, thankyouverymuch.
Someday when he’s all grown up and you confess this all to him, that those teeth would have stayed in your jewelry box anyways, oh the great laugh you both will have!!!!
LOVE YOU!
At our house, the tooth fairy brings gold dollars too. Also, my son prefers to leave a note asking the tooth fairy to leave the tooth. You know admire it a little, but leave both the tooth and the gold dollar.
One tooth was “saved”– Left behind by the tooth fairy. Heaven knows where it is now, gross. And another tooth came out at school, and was then lost on the way home, so we had to write an explanatory note about the missing tooth.
LOL! what a kid – that’s so cool!
OMG! That is so cute — what a wonderful kid!!
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Moms Who Blog, eden brown. eden brown said: Tooth Fairy FAIL « Toddler Planet: Tooth Fairy pillow Widget is six. He's had a loose tooth for a while now, and… http://bit.ly/f1KAVk […]
Wonderful story! Thanks so much for sharing it! My favorite tooth fairy story is about a young girl in our last church who said to her mother, “Mother, tell me the truth. Are you the Tooth Fairy.” The mother responded, “Yes, dear, I am.” The daughter replied, “But, Mom, how do you get to all of those children all over the world?” 🙂
As your cousin got older and the bigger teeth started coming out, he would just put them in the pant pockets of his school pants. Not being one to check pockets very well, I would find them in the bottom of the washing machine. That made me realized he was growing up a little faster than anticipated.
Losing that first tooth for six year old children is almost a status symbol.
What an adorable child! Thanks for sharing your story.
I can remember another time that another tooth pillow held an explanatory note. . . when YOU lost YOUR tooth at school and then dropped it outside in the yard before you could get it safely into the house. First there were tears, and then there was a plea for justice! As I recall, the tooth fairy listened to reason and came through for you. . . !
Oh, what a darling boy! After all that work on the pillow, too. At least he has something to put in the pocket, even if only temporarily. Pearl swallowed her first, oh, seven?, teeth to fall out! Lots of letter-writing to the tooth fairy to explain the circumstances. She always ends the letter with “Please wake me up when you come” and the tooth fairy always replies “I’m not allowed to wake childen up, it’s against the Tooth Fairy Rules”. 🙂
Hi Susan,
I have lost friends and family to cancer and currently have a friend who is battling breast cancer at age 35. From reading your blog, I know you are very interested in research for a cure, so you might be as frustrated as I am when watching the following. Go the Jibber Jabbers blog for the newscast on a very promising drug that CURES cancer, but may never see the light of day. Maybe with more people becoming aware of these situations, we can work together to end this madness. Below is an excerpt.
Take care,
Johanna
December 20, 2010
Cancer Cure Found in Canada. Big Pharma says “No way”…
A simple drug (DCA) that only cost pennies a dose and has NO side effects. This drug “triggers” Cancer cells to “commit suicide”.
There is NO Patent on the drug and can be very Inexpensive to buy and manufacture. This is a BIG PROBLEM to BIG PHARMA. Which will lose HUGE profits on drugs that don’t do much but reap them huge profits.
DCA has been shown to shrink brain, breast and lung tumors in weeks with zero side effects. Look for this Drug to DISAPPEAR or never show up in America. You can always drive to Canada I guess.
What a precious *precious* story!!! We grow attached to the familiar… even teeth. 🙂 Bless his heart & toothless grin.
As a little aside… my mom bought one of those fill-in-the-blank booklets many years ago. It’s a wonderful book which asked so many questions that I would have never thought to ask mom, about her life growing up (she was born in 1918). One of the questions in the booklet was:
What did the tooth fairy leave you when you lost a tooth?
Mom’s answer: We kids never got anything from the tooth fairy. I don’t think she was born yet, at that time.
😀
Mom came from a very poor household (as most households were back then). So I’m sure the tooth fairy wasn’t even thought about. I took my mom to physical therapy after her knee surgery in 2001 & the therapist instructed mom to get up on a stationary bike, to exercise her knee. She climbed on up, with help, put her feet on the pedals, and didn’t do anything else. The therapist told her to go ahead & pedal the bike. Mom explained she didn’t understand what to do and the therapist told her it was just like riding a bicycle, when she was a child. Mom chimed up that she had never ridden a bicycle in her life. She said that there were 7 children in the family & they were too poor for the kids to each have a bike… and her parents weren’t about to buy one bike & then listen to all 7 kids fighting over it. So there simply was no bike. Problem solved.
Mom’s been gone 2 years now but boy, the stories she told. This story about your little Widget reminded me of my mom & her (non)encounter with the Tooth Fairy.
Praying for you always~ Andrea
xoxoxoxoxo
Oh, that’s so funny. Sometimes you just can’t win, huh? This story is way better than one about a smooth-running tooth fairy transaction. Love it! That Widget is a fun kid.
That’s hilarious. It’s the sort of thing that comes at a parent from sideways and you never see it coming. So what happened? Does he get the tooth back? If the Tooth Fairy relinquishes the tooth, does the quarter go back to the “Tooth Fairy” pot-o-magical-tooth money? Does this turn out to be a lesson in economics and trade-offs?
Don’t leave us in suspense.
Susan,
What a funny story! I just cracked up! Your son’s last comment of “I won’t be needing that anymore,” was just priceless. I can just picture you stitching frantically in the car! Leave it to kids, huh?
That is too funny. CG leaves notes for the Tooth Fairy asking to keep her teeth, and the tooth fairy always obliges (and leaves money, too).
My son lost his first tooth last week as well. We were at Disneyland so the tooth pillow (which my mom gave to me) was at home. My mother-in-law donated the case she uses to store her hearing aids for the cause. In the morning my son found a Phineas & Ferb cd he loves AND the tooth. I thought the container MIL gave us was perfect for transporting the tooth back home so I explained the tooth fairy leaves the first tooth for the parents to keep. Worked for him.
“Let’s believe in the magic of childhood … just a little bit longer.” That made me smile. Good wish for us all.
My son has lost 2 teeth now and both times we left a polite note asking if it would be possible to keep his tooth. We have an understanding tooth fairy, so he got to keep the teeth.